


tangible

by orphan_account



Category: Romeo And Juliet - All Media Types, Romeo And Juliet - Shakespeare
Genre: Kissing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-07
Updated: 2015-07-07
Packaged: 2018-04-08 04:02:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4290084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's something magical in the air just before a big storm; Mercutio has always been able to feel it, as tangible as the cool flakes of ice against his skin or the body pressed up against his.</p>
            </blockquote>





	tangible

There was always something in the air right before it snowed; something electric, tangible. It was the same thing with rain, he supposed, but it was also different- as if the snow itself knew just how powerful it was, how capable of damaging. Snow, Mercutio liked to think, could stop everything in its tracks, almost like freezing a moment in time and allowing it to linger, if only for a little while.

He didn't like to be out during the snow- too cold for him, thank you, and his boots sliding on ice or getting stuck in drifts made it difficult for him to move as casually and lithely as he liked to. But before a storm- that little window of time when there was a sensation of magic in the air- Mercutio inevitably found himself venturing from the palace or any one of his other numerous hangouts. Like a dog responding to a call for food, that time just before a big storm never failed to lure him outside, even if just for a little while- just long enough to feel that aura lingering over the streets. It scared everyone else back into their homes; but for Mercutio, it was a siren song that lured him out.

He was surprised, that cool January afternoon right before a major snowstorm was due to hit, to catch sight of a slim silhouette making quick pace through the streets up towards the Montague section of town; it took a moment of observing the figure, more out of idle interest than from anything else, before he realized that he wasn't looking at a stranger.

"Benvolio!"

The figure's head turned, and familiar hazel eyes caught hold of his own. Mercutio jogged out from the deserted alley he'd been lingering in, glad to be greeted by Benvolio's easy grin.

"What a sight you are, out and about- for a moment I almost thought you were a ghost." Mercutio shoved his hands deep into his coat pockets, easily matching the other's strides down the street. "Where the hell is your jacket?"

"I didn't bring it," he replied with a shrug, glancing down at himself as if taking note of this fact for the first time. His lanky frame was covered by sensible jeans and a sweater, but Mercutio noted with chagrin that there wasn’t any jacket or even a simple hat in sight. "I was helping out old Mrs. Genovese,” explained Benvolio, shrugging off Mercutio’s obvious pointed look of concern with a roll of his eyes. “Her husband just died, so she needs help with groceries and things like that now."

_Typical Benvolio_ , Mercutio thought, finding himself smirking in spite of himself. It was just like him to go out of his way to help someone else, even if doing so would put him in a precarious position himself- like caught outside coatless just before a storm.

“Helping little old ladies with their groceries- you are a saint, Ben,” Mercutio remarked, patting his friend’s back. Benvolio let out a short laugh that materialized itself in the freezing air before him.

“Am I now?”

“Quite. A man is determined from a mouse by his willingness to help others, you know.”

“So you say. I’m not a mouse, then?”

“More a cat than a mouse, if I dare to say, and more a dog than a cat.” Mercutio cast a wry grin over at his friend, but gradually his smile faded off his face as he noticed the shiver that wracked Benvolio’s thin frame. “You’re cold,” he stated, eyes narrowing.

“Not really,” the other boy replied, though the chattering of his teeth served to contradict his own statement. Face flushing even more than the chill of the air cased it to, he clamped his mouth shut.

“You are. For god’s sake, you’re trembling, and your teeth are clacking like a chicken’s beak. What were you thinking, fool?” Mercutio scowled, ignoring the surprised look he could see on Benvolio’s face. Benvolio didn’t have the _right_ not to take care of himself; it infuriated Mercutio to see his friend ignoring his own needs so blatantly.

“Mercutio-” began Benvolio, but Mercutio wouldn’t have it.

“Here.”

Benvolio blinked owlishly down at the proffered offering- Mercutio’s heavy maroon leather jacket, which had just seconds ago been resting on the other boy’s shoulders. Glancing up at his friend again, Benvolio seemed baffled; rolling his eyes, Mercutio shoved his jacket forward once more.

“You’re giving me your jacket?”

“Take it or freeze by your own will,” Mercutio replied. “Your choice.”

Benvolio seemed ready to protest; but another shiver caused his body to tremble, and at a pointed look from Mercutio he heaved a defeated sigh, accepting the coat from his friend’s hands. “Thank you, Cutio. You didn’t have to worry-”

“I did,” replied the blond, shaking his head as Benvolio slipped the jacket on. “You won’t worry about yourself; and poor Romeo’s head is in the clouds so often that he needs to worry about himself twenty four hours of the day, or else he might wind up wandering in front of a bus, dear soul that he is. If I didn’t worry about you, who would?”

“I don’t need anyone to worry about me,” Benvolio replied, somewhat indignantly, as he tried to adjust the sleeves of the jacket so that they wouldn’t hang to his fingertips. “I’m fine. No one worries about you.”

Mercutio glanced over to observe his friend’s struggles; Benvolio was shorter than him, but he hadn’t anticipated just how large has jacket would wind up being on the thin teen. The jacket hung off Benvolio like a blanket, concealing his shoulders entirely. It was almost comical, in a way, and Mercutio fought off the urge to smirk by reminding himself that he was still angry at him. 

“You worry about me.”

“Yes, because if you got yourself killed, I’d probably go right along after you.”

Immediately after the words left Benvolio’s mouth, he clamped his jaw shut. Eyes widening at his own brashness, he turned his head before Mercutio could look at him and he could see the hurt on the blond’s face from what he had said. It wasn’t like him to speak without thinking; the words had just slipped out of his mouth before he could even register them, probably in result of Mercutio’s suddenly waspish mood. He hadn’t meant to say something so dark, something as startling as that… _What was I thinking?_

Every second Mercutio didn’t speak and Benvolio was left to dwell on his words was its own private hell. Surely Mercutio was angry with him now, if he hadn’t been before; and after a statement like that, he probably deserved it. Still, as seconds, minutes, hours passed without a word from the boy next to him, Benvolio felt the urge to melt into the ground. He would have even thought the other boy had run off and left him alone again, if it wasn’t for the steady rhythm of footsteps on the pavement next to him.

“Why would you say a thing like that?”

The voice was a sudden, cooling balm to Benvolio’s stinging tongue and mind. “I wasn’t thinking,” he replied immediately. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said that.”

“If you really care that much- _hey,_ Ben-” Benvolio instinctively cringed away from the hand on his shoulder, but Mercutio was dogged. “Quit being stupid, look at me. Benvolio, for god’s sake-”

Despite his resistance, Benvolio inevitably found himself face to face with Mercutio; the quick-tempered blond’s face was earnest, and his eyes burned with an emotion that Benvolio could not identify. “I-”

The press of lips against his own cut him off, and in a single instant he wondered if he had been consumed by flames. Mercutio’s lips, warm and chapped by cold but utterly soothing, moved against his in a bold rhythm; despite knowing that he needed to move, every instinct in his body that always served to guide him, _‘wrong’_ or _‘right,_ _‘stop’_ or _‘go’,_ all seemed to short circuit in that moment as the one person he cared about most in the world pressed his electric kiss to his lips. Mercutio held him close, fierce and unyielding- not that Benvolio would, or at the moment could, struggle against him anyway- and his rough fingertips slowly massaged the back of Benvolio’s head and shoulders. Benvolio’s body, initially tense, practically melted under Mercutio’s touch; giving himself to the kiss entirely, the paralyzing effect seemed to wear off as he responded to Mercutio’s mouth with enthusiasm. The flicker of Mercutio’s tongue against his parted lips caused Benvolio to press himself closer, entangling his hands in Mercutio’s hair and moving against him frantically, almost desperately.

They parted for air after what seemed like an eternity, but seconds later Benvolio was back again; force and need driving him forward, taking even Mercutio by surprise as he returned the original kiss with fervor.

_“Ben…”_ Mercutio tried to interrupt, but Benvolio’s short, breathless kisses left him devoid of words as all he found himself able to do was return them. It took a good moment for him to finally get his wits back about him, and gently interject again. “Benvolio...”

Mercutio pressed his hands against, the other’s shoulders, holding him back; their chests heaved in tandem, breathlessly, their faces flushed with cold and heat and something even stronger. “Slow down,” he chuckled, and Benvolio leaned back, closing his eyes as his own actions finally began to sink into his mind. He had been so forceful… but that didn’t change the fact that Mercutio had kissed him first. _Mercutio_ … had _kissed_ him.

“W- why did you-” he began, but Mercutio’s hands had left his shoulders and when he opened his eyes it was to see Mercutio jogging off down the quickly-darkening street. With the heavy jacket over his shoulders and the heat filling his body Benvolio hadn’t noticed it, but the first flakes of snow were slowly beginning to fall from the sky. “Hey!” he called out, eyes widening at the departing figure. “What- Mercutio!”

Not pausing in his sprint, the other boy spun around to face him running backwards down the street. “What was that?” Benvolio called, and Mercutio raised his hands in a defensive gesture. He wore a wide, elated grin on his face.

“Just wanted to show you I’m still here! And I’m always going to be!” One of Mercutio’s more manic laughs carried down the street, and Benvolio caught a wild glint in his eyes. “You can’t escape me that easily!”

Benvolio stood under the streetlight, blinking dazedly back at him. Vaguely, he registered the presence of the coat on his shoulders. “Your jacket-”

“Keep it!” called Mercutio, waving an arm at him. “It’s way too big on you! Maybe it will motivate you to grow a few more inches!”

“Don’t… call me short…” Benvolio’s voice faded to a whisper as Mercutio rounded a corner and vanished out of sight. The dark haired Montague wrapped his arms around his shoulders, holding the jacket close to his body, and shivered despite the warm feeling that still seemed to consume him. The small smile that played on his lips simply refused to fade away, no matter how much he willed it too.

Around the corner, Mercutio kept up his victorious sprint, the wild grin on his face still not fading. He threw his arms up in the air and spun around, laughing; the snow falling from the sky almost seemed to congratulate him, and his heart pounding violently in his chest urged him to run back to the palace faster and faster.

Perhaps he had been right after all; there was something magical in the air just before a snowstorm. And maybe, just possibly, for one second Benvolio had felt it too.

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to write Bencutio kisses. Don't judge me.


End file.
